PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS... OF GENERAL INTEREST: CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE

In this address to the 1994 annual meeting of the American
Meteorological Society, the administrator of the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration describes the need for a global
observing system for the environment, and the development now
underway of the Global Climate, Global Terrestrial and Global
Oceanic Observing Systems (GCOS, GTOS and GOOS, respectively).

The Younger Dryas episode of marked climatic cooling after the
initial retreat of the latest ice sheets has been well documented
in the North Atlantic region. Radiocarbon dating of a terminal
moraine in New Zealand presented here suggests that the Younger
Dryas was a worldwide event, and that its source may lie in the
atmosphere rather than in a North Atlantic thermohaline switch.

"Distant Effects of Volcanism--How Big and How
Often?" T. Simkin (Global Volcanism Prog., Natl.
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Inst., Washington
DC 20560), 913-914. Puts the following article in a
research perspective, and discusses how interdisciplinary
approaches are providing a better understanding of the
relation between volcanism and climate change.

"Record of Volcanism Since 7000 B.C. from the GISP2
Greenland Ice Core and Implications for the
Volcano-Climate System," G.A. Zielinski (Inst. Study
of Earth, Oceans & Space, Univ. New Hampshire, Durham
NH 03824), 948-952. The analysis shows a period of
elevated sulfate deposition in Greenland ice during the
period 5000-7000 B.C., reflecting increased volcanism in
the early Holocene that may have contributed to climatic
cooling.

Uses an energy-balance model coupled to an upwelling-diffusion
deep-ocean model to the estimate the effect of utilizing a
substantial fraction of the World's fossil fuel reservoir.
Greenhouse warming would peak in the period 2200-2400 at 4-13°C
greater than present, dominating the Milankovitch effects
occurring over the same interval.

Investigates anthropogenic changes in the chemical composition
of the atmosphere since preindustrial times, using a
two-dimensional model in which dynamics, radiation and chemistry
are treated interactively. Finds significant increases in the
oxidizing capacity of the troposphere, and ozone depletion of up
to 60% of preindustrial levels in the Antarctic lower
stratosphere. The radiative results emphasize the potentially
important role of chemical feedbacks on climate, and indicate
that the direct forcing associated with increasing concentrations
of greenhouse gases is enhanced about 30% by these feedbacks.